North Colorado Medical Center is enhancing its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in an effort to better serve families with premature infants in the Greeley area.

The change from a Level 2 to a Level 3 nursery will bring a higher level of care, which will begin Monday. New equipment added as part of the enhancements includes incubators, ventilators, infant warmers, bilirubin lights, bili blankets, breast pumps and high-flow oxygen setups along with additional respiratory and neonatal supplies. Funding was provided by Banner Health and the NCMC Foundation as part of Banner's larger strategy to provide quality care and serve the community's growing needs, according to a Banner Health news release.

The Level 2 special care nursery provided respiratory support for newborns for only a short period of time, typically a day or two at most, for babies who were born at 32 weeks gestation or later. If a baby was born earlier than 32 weeks and required respiratory support for a longer period, they were transferred to Denver to a facility that could provide Level 3 NICU care.

Banner Health officials said they hope the new level of service will allow more families to stay closer to home during treatment.

"Becoming a Level 3 NICU will allow us the opportunity to provide a higher level of clinical care and help patients be their healthiest closer to home," Tammy Piccone, director Women and Infant Services and Pediatrics at NCMC, said in the news release. "A lot of work, care coordination and additional training has gone into the expansion of services in the NCMC NICU and we are excited to offer this extension of care to families in need."